If you read my blog you know how I feel about Eddie Sutton. Even though I’m an OU fan…Eddie Sutton connected with me as someone who loves seeing basketball played the right way.
I’m not on here saying Mike Boynton at this juncture is going to be the next Eddie Sutton, but what I’m saying is he made an immediate connection with me when I started following his pressers. Much like Chris Beard did when he took the Texas Tech job.
Add to that fact…I have two friends who are close to everything O State athletic related and one of them told me after Brad Underwood left O State to take the Illinois job… the search process for a new coach did not go beyond Mike Boynton’s interview for one simple reason.
The reason being Mike Boynton knocked it out of the ballpark with his interview. Search over.
I thought to myself maybe that was hyperbole of some sort, but after taking the time to observe and follow Mike Boynton…I pretty much agree.
In case you haven’t noticed…I’m not into tanking. I think what Sam Presti is doing to his own basketball players right now is demeaning and a complete put down to them and an insult to the game of basketball on every imagineable level of what sport and competition are supposed to represent.
But to be objective… Presti did the same exact same thing in Seattle before the Thunder came to Oklahoma and he did it for a year in Oklahoma in that inaugural 23-59 season. That 23-59 season was the season in fact is when I sat next to Coach Sutton and his wife and grandchildren during the Detroit Piston game. We were sitting right behind the Piston bench in fact.
That was when I told him what Abe Lemons once told me about Coach Sutton as a coach. As in…”If had a son and wanted him to learn to play basketball the right way…I’d send him to that son of a bitch Eddie Sutton.”
Mike Boynton is an old school players coach. A guy who played point guard at South Carolina and expects his players to show him the same degree of respect he shows to them.
O State may not be as good as they were last season with Cade Cunningham, but with the way Coach Boynton coaches..I expect O State to be one of those teams just after Kansas, Texas, and maybe Baylor to be in the top half of the Big 12 this season.
As far as OU with Porter Moser..who could really know because they’ve never played together as a team. But I know they’ll play hard on the defensive end of the floor. I know that much.
In closing…if I were a father who had a son who was an elite basketball player right now…I’d very much be comfortable with sending my son to either Coach Boynton or Coach Moser.
I feel confident with these two guys at the helm at OU and O State they will continue playing Bedlam basketball even after OU leaves to join the SEC. Which I think will be the adult way to handle it.
Good luck with your basketball season, Coach Boynton.